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How Firefox Got Fast Again

hacks.mozilla.org

491–500 of 713 posts

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#491
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been on Firefox since I can remember it being out, but the latest versions, 56+, have me using it only intermittently due to battery drain issues on Mac[0] :(. I am really hoping they get this fixed shortly. [0] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042

Honestly, if you are on macOS, just use Safari. Most extension you want/need are there (or the are suitable replacements. cVim and sVim are pretty close if you don't dive to deep, for example). Adblocking is actually faster than on any other browser because the blockers use the same Content Blocking API as on iOS Safari. And then the battery life... you easily get 2-4h more just by using Safari. Which brings me to my…

I've long held your viewpoint. I push friends and family to use their platform's native browser. Most often than not, it saves on battery and reduces energy usage. I use Safari on iOS and on my desktop I've always used 2 browsers. 1 for browsing and a 2nd for long-running media. Thus on my desktop I use Firefox and for media, Edge.

I don't have a laptop, but will when the Qualcomm Snapdragon Windows10 machines land, and will probably use Edge exclusively there.

It's important to watch where incentives run. Google has the incentive to profit from you. Microsoft and Apple have the incentive to make sure your browser and device work as efficiently and well together as possible. Mozilla focuses on privacy as their main feature.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#492
post #87

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For those who don't know, if you sign in to your Google account in Chrome, Google will automatically save all the searches you've done in the omnibox. I don't remember Google ever warning me specifically that this was happening in the background, and after I checked https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity and noticed it was doing that, I was so furious that I deleted all the data Google kept on me there, and paused…

thanks for the direct ftp link, and congrats to the firefox team! i've been using 57 (and 58) via the developer edition and really like the improvements. but i think i'll stick with 56 as my default browser for a little longer since quantum breaks some great legacy add-ons: * NoScript -- control script execution * RequestPolicy (and its variants) -- control content requests * Blend In -- use the most common user agen…

I switched from RequestPolicy to uMatrix earlier this year and have found it to be an acceptable substitute. I think my motivation was RequestPolicy being incompatible with multiprocess.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#493
post #436

One thing I particularly like about the Mozilla Devtool is that when I highlight an element, I can see the horizontal and vertical lines that extend beyond the element box model which is great to see if other items are leveled with the one selected. Does anyone know if this is supported in Chrome or might there be an extension that can reproduce this functionality?

"Show Rulers" in the chrome dev console settings.

Oh awesome! Thanks for the quick response.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#494

A question as I consider moving to Firefox. On Chrome I've set my search engine keywoards so I can open a new tab and type "w foo" to search Wikipedia for "foo". And similar things for DuckDuckGo, Hoogle, Amazon, etc. On Firefox I can do something similar if i'm willing to click on a small icon rather than hitting enter or move to the search bar with ctrl-k, type my term, then press tab a bunch of times to select the…

In Firefox, you can right click on any search box and there's an option to "add a keyword search" For a Wikipedia search, you'd set the keyword to "w" and then you'd get the identical behaviour you have in Chrome when typing "w foo" in your Awesome Bar.

Ah, there we go. I don't get the same visual cues which confused me a bit but those aren't actually important at all. Thank you very much.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#495
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reminder. I just downloaded the latest FF beta and exiled Chrome to an "only when needed" role. All the back-and-forth about speed and features is understandable, but misses the point that Firefox needs our support if we are to have any real non-proprietary options for what is quickly becoming the base system abstraction layer for most computing.

BTW: if using Android, if FF is not for you, try Brave instead of Chrome. It feels exactly like Chrome (it's Chromium-based), but has a built-in adblocker, tracker blocking, HTTPS everywhere, no nagging to sign in, and does not throw "suggested news" (with no opt-out) upon you. Brave's founder is ex-Mozilla's CEO (Brendan Eich). However latest FF on Android is actually not bad, at least if you have a modern phone (th…

Anecdotally, I have found that Brave chokes on some obscure websites (i.e. it won't play video or audio).

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#497

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Except it does. It has the functionality to do BOTH. The tagline of giving the option to either disable ads or replace ads is to provide a way to enjoy an ad-free experience or to receive only optimized advertisements. A big reason some users dislike ads isn't because of their entire existance but rather their tendency as of late to be malware-ridden or cause drops in webpage performance. These are the things that ca…

>A big reason some users dislike ads isn't because of their entire existance but rather their tendency as of late to be malware-ridden or cause drops in webpage performance. These are the things that cause some users to enable ad-blockers, and Brave is the only way I've heard of that has pushed the envelope of a BETTER ad experience. AdBlock Plus also does something equivalent through their default option to show "Un…

The problem with AdBlock Plus is that, as far as I can tell, the way to get on their "unobtrusive ads" list isn't to actually be "unobtrusive" to any meaningful standard, it's to pay them to qualify you as unobtrusive.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, it has to a large extent. Somethings that are not yet there: 1. Since Webextensions are new, some extensions that I use in chrome, need to be ported over. Most are not must haves to be fair. 2. Hangouts for work. :( 3. A solution to manage different personas - Chrome has the "user profile" thing linked to google accounts, firefox as container tabs. I think user profile is better than container tabs, altho…

Thank you for choosing Firefox. 1. Are there any specific extensions you need? Happy to add them to our outreach list. 2. Sorry about Hangouts; follows a trend of Chrome-only product launches/re-launches from Google (five this year so far). Wish we could do more, but if Google's OK shipping things that only work on one browser, that's their prerogative. 3. Firefox also has completely separate profiles, in addition to…

> 3. Firefox also has completely separate profiles, in addition to container tabs. The UI isn't as polished as in Chrome, but it works: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-...

Chrome allows users to simultaneously run multiple profile instances, each with it own profile. Firefox didn't seem to support that.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account... (or a similar addon) might bring me back to using Firefox.

With Chrome, one set up a profile shortcut to a given profile, and then all tabs/windows within the instance corresponded to the same profile. This meant hitting Ctrl+T to open new tabs, rather than having to click and dig through a menu to pick the right profile.

I'd like the containers addon to support easy shortcuts. Maybe on hitting ctrl+t, one can then press 1-5 (or some other selector) to determine which profile the new tab opens in. Alternatively, more safely and less confusingly, just having windows sticky to a specific profile, so all new tabs predictably open into the same profile.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most anti-user "User Agent" thing of Chrome, in my experience, is their refusal to let me open my myriad dev sites with bogus certificates claiming some bullshit HSTS problem, without giving me a "do it anyway, you stupid browser" button. So, literally, I still use Chrome (because I'm too used to it), but I do all my dev work on Firefox, which has a dev-friendly user policy.

I believe if you type "badidea" at the error page it will let you through unconditionally.

I wish I knew that when adding auto-HTTPS and HSTS functionality to a product - typing out "chrome://net-internals/#hsts" almost became muscle memory.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most anti-user "User Agent" thing of Chrome, in my experience, is their refusal to let me open my myriad dev sites with bogus certificates claiming some bullshit HSTS problem, without giving me a "do it anyway, you stupid browser" button. So, literally, I still use Chrome (because I'm too used to it), but I do all my dev work on Firefox, which has a dev-friendly user policy.

I believe if you type "badidea" at the error page it will let you through unconditionally.

Holy crap. I have Google'd a zillion times for a workaround and they all were insane "do about a zillion steps on Keychain access or just fix your server." THANK YOU BOTH.
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